Latest figures show a worrying trend for Midland Regional Hospital Portlaoise, with numbers awaiting outpatient appointments increasing by almost 50%.
There are currently 5,514 people waiting to be called to an outpatient appointment at the hospital, up from 3,758 in 2015. The increase of 1,756 represents a 47% increase.
The Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA) has warned that a lack of public hospital capacity and hospital Consultants in Portlaoise is resulting in increasing waiting times for treatment.
The IHCA says that is impacting on patient outcomes, and is not just a problem for Portlaoise, but across the Midlands region as a whole.
At the end of May there were 34,284 people waiting for an outpatient appointment, inpatient/day case treatment or procedure at the three Midland Regional Hospitals in Mullingar, Portlaoise and Tullamore. This is an increase of an additional 7,634 since 2015.
Of the almost 30,000 people waiting for an outpatient appointment at Mullingar, Portlaoise and Tullamore Hospitals, 20% (5,900) have been waiting longer than a year.
They say that despite “dangerously high hospital bed occupancy rates in the region”, the Midlands is being ignored in the Government’s limited bed capacity expansion plans.
Out of the 970 additional inpatient hospital beds opened nationally since the start of 2020, just 25 beds were in the Midlands – all of these at Regional Hospital Tullamore.
As a result, more than 800 people have been added to the three main hospital waiting lists in the region since the start of the year, which is an increase of almost 2.5% and in the opposite direction to Government’s Waiting List Action Plan for 2023.
“But because the shortage of beds is so severe in the region, acutely ill patients are admitted, and essential surgical and other care is cancelled due to the significant capacity deficits,” said the statement.
The region also has one of the highest Consultant vacancy rates in the country, with 29% of permanent Consultant posts (51 posts) vacant or filled on a temporary or agency basis – 10 more post not filled as needed compared with a year earlier.
The IHCA said patients will unfortunately continue to languish on trolleys and unacceptable waiting lists, and suffer poorer outcomes as a result, until the Government implements credible, funded, time-bound plans which address the growing demand for care in the Midlands.
Commenting on the waiting list and hospital beds analysis IHCA Vice President Prof Anne Doherty said: “The increasing waiting lists for care continue to impact healthcare outcomes for some of our most vulnerable patients.
“Government must commit the necessary capital spend in the Budget in October to deliver extra capacity for patients in the Midlands.
“The Midlands has one of the lowest numbers of acute beds on a population basis in Ireland at 2.13 beds per 1,000 population.
“The hospitals need about 240 additional beds to bring us up to the national average of 2.89 beds per 1,000 population, which is too low to start with, and an extra 860 acute hospital beds to bring the region up to the EU average.
“That’s more than a doubling in the number of public hospital beds at the three Midlands hospitals – or the equivalent of St James’s Hospital in Dublin.
“Unfortunately, the Government’s current plans for four new elective hospitals and six surgical hubs will not result in any additional capacity in the region,” said Prof Doherty.
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